When documents are transported for scanning using a document feeder, they may become skewed while traveling through the paper path. The skew may be caused by a number of factors, including how the paper was placed in the hopper or how the transport rollers grab the leading edge of the paper to move it. Skew may also result from manual placement of documents within the scanner if sufficient care or time is not taken.
In the prior art, the image of the misaligned (skewed) document is captured and stored temporarily. Consequently, this image is skewed. The image is then straightened by calculating the angle of skew and manipulating the pixel values that comprise the image. This causes some loss in the sharpness of the image, as well as requiring temporary storage of a skewed image within the image forming device. This invention eliminates this type of de-skewing process.